p. 7 | MODERN CONFUCIANISM by T. E. Bowen

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Mar 13, 1907

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 11.

MODERN CONFUCIANISM.

By T. E. Bowen

THE Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. "For therein is the righteousness of God revealed." It pleased the Father to reveal eternal salvation thru His Son. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." His name was called Jesus; for He was born into our family for the express purpose of saving "His people from their sins." Thus the power of God to save, is found alone in Jesus Christ; wholly apart and separate from the individual. This is Christianity pure and simple.

The science of heathenism is the salvation of the individual accomplished by the evolution of the supposed good in himself. The farther one studies into such science, the farther away he gets from Christ, because the starting point is false. The goal is the deification of self. This is the artful design of the deceiver—the god of this world. The moment Christianity is shorn of its real living power—that saving faith in Jesus Christ which brings to the soul God's righteousness—and degenerates into a form, it becomes powerless to cope with the science of heathenism.

A master mind, that once sealed up the wisdom of God, has planned the science constituting the foundation of false religions. These are not all devoid of good, but the good is used in such a way as to make it deceptive and misleading.

The science of self-salvation—heathenism—is as old as the race. The separation began in Eden itself; Cain brought an offering to the Lord, but it was not accepted. It was a Christless sacrifice, and the very offering of it was in fact a challenge by Cain that God should accept him just as he was. This God could never do.

Many of the false religions deify the nation and hold up the national life and character as the highest goal to be attained. This is but the deification of self, for the national character can be only the reflection of the character of the men who have been prominent in national affairs. Upon these shoals the Jewish nation shipwrecked.

Confucian Classics.

Prominent among national deifications are the sacred books of China known as the Confucian Classics. These constitute, in fact, the Bible for the masses of the common people, as they are more familiar with these than other works held as sacred. These books are of venerable age, their origin dating, according to Chinese traditions, as far back as 2850 B.C. The last of these heathen scientific scriptures (as the nine books constituting the Confucian Classics are to the religion of China what the Bible is to the Christian) were not completed until the second century of the Christian era.

Let us notice briefly a few of the doctrines taught by these ancient Confucian classics. Rev. G. Owen, one of the revisers of the Mandarin Bible, in "The Bible in All the World," says:

"The underlying thought of these classics is mainly political. Some of them, as the Book of History, are mostly lessons and examples in good government. Even the odes are largely governmental. Confucianism is primarily a political system, and aims at the production of a perfect ruler in a perfect State. Confucius himself spent the greater part of his long life in wandering from court to court seeking, among the feudal princes of the empire, one who would take him as philosopher and guide. Even in training his private pupils his aim was to equip a body of wise and efficient men for the service of the State. He never once addressed the people, or spoke to the multitude. Mencius, one hundred years afterward, pursued the same course. The government they sought to establish was a benevolent despotism, or mild patriarchy. It was, doubtless, for this reason mainly that the Government of China early patronized these classics, and finally adopted them as its text-books in the examination of all official candidates."

That pantheism is one of the foundation doctrine pillars of these classics is shown by the following quotation:

"Thruout these classics, the inherent goodness of human nature is explicitly taught or implicitly assumed. The whole teaching is based on the assumption that MAN IS GOOD. He comes into the world with a heaven-endowed moral nature. GOODNESS IS NATURAL TO HIM."

And this teaching is held up before all China as the goal. It is all the poor working classes know as far as human help and teaching are concerned. These are the sacred books from which the scholars deal out short scraps to the ignorant masses for their hard-earned money, to be eagerly devoured by them as spiritual food. Dr. Owen, upon this point, says:

"Tho termed sacred, these books can hardly be called religious, for the religious element in them

is secondary and incidental. Primarily, they teach politics, sociology, and morals. They are pervaded by a reverential spirit and a belief in a Power that makes for righteousness, but the religious teaching is vague."

Such is the teaching, as well as the instilled education of centuries, our missionaries must meet in the far East. Nothing but the truth as revealed in the third angel's message, can effectually rescue these people. In this message alone can the people be invited to worship Him "that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." This message presents to the mind and heart of the Confucian scholar, also the unlearned peasant, the only true God who can create; whose name appears in the true Sabbath commandment as the authoritative Lawgiver; a Being able both to create and destroy; and one abundantly able also to redeem. And with this teaching, the Holy Spirit will work in power to convert the soul by tenderly touching the heart of the poor heathen worshiper, without which argument and learned words prove unavailing.

Putting the comments of the learned Dr. Owen as to the teaching of Confucian classics beside the teaching of the pulpits in our professedly enlightened land, we are led to wonder which of the two can command the greater respect, or in a contest for supremacy, which of the two would win out in the end. With the modern pulpit teaching in mind, carefully read again the quotation cited above: "Tho termed sacred [the teaching of], these books can hardly be called religious, for the religious element in them is secondary and incidental. Primarily, they teach politics, sociology, and morals. They are pervaded by a reverential spirit and a belief in a Power that makes for righteousness, but the religious teaching is vague."